First came the palace intrigue in Niners-world, as the prince rebelled against the emperor. Then the skeletons came tumbling out of George Mitchell's bag, bearing a whole lot of Giants and A's DNA. A day later, Dan Haren became a Diamondback, leaving Oakland on the heavily traveled Beane Express.

The only thing separating December 2007 from the abyss was a look back at December 1997. On a single day, Dec. 1, Latrell Sprewell clutched P.J. Carlesimo's windpipe during Warriors practice, and the feds' plans to prosecute 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo on gambling fraud charges went public. Two weeks later, Jerry Rice was crumpled in the end zone, his left knee mangled for the second time in 15 weeks, all but ensuring that his career as a 49er would end prematurely.

By comparison, last week looks pretty light. None of what came down arrived without a certain foreshadowing. The long-term repercussions won't be nearly as dire as they were after the '97 trifecta, and the net effect, in at least two of the cases, could be construed as cathartic.

Take the insurrection of Alex Smith. It certainly didn't come out of a vacuum. The quarterback and head coach had already played a few rounds of verbal volleyball with the issue of Smith's health, well before he ended his season with complaints that Mike Nolan portrayed him as a malingerer.

To Nolan's many detractors, Smith's parting shot was a windfall, reducing the chances that the York family would hold onto the coach in the interest of franchise stability and fiscal prudence. At the same time, by speaking out of turn, Smith pulled some threads out of his own incumbency. From what we saw this year - even before he hurt his shoulder - that's not necessarily a bad thing.

The upside is still a downer because it leaves the team looking for a new coach, a general manager and possibly a quarterback. But it beats the fallout from the Sprewell-Carlesimo showdown, which demanded instant exile for a talented player and the appearance of full front-office support for the coach, whether he deserved it or not.

The Sprewell incident was splashier at the time, but the day's news about DeBartolo would dismantle a dynasty. The Warriors already were in disarray at the time, still undone by Chris Webber's immunity to the charms of Don Nelson. The 49ers, three years removed from a Super Bowl win, were one of the best teams in the NFL that season. On Dec. 2, DeBartolo had to turn the club over to the York branch of the family, and he never regained control. The club is now on its fifth straight year under .500.

DeBartolo, despite his plea bargain and the fact that he brought the wrath of the NFL on himself, still gets a lot of love from 49ers fans. Five Super Bowl trophies can obscure a whole lot of sins. But if you'd put him and George Mitchell on a San Francisco stage together last week, I'm not sure which of them would have received the bigger ovation. As badly as the ex-senator's doping report portrayed the local baseball teams, the authoritative shaming of Roger Clemens made Mitchell something of a hero in these parts.

After years of hearing Barry Bonds derided as a cheater, as if he alone represented this bastardized era in baseball, Giants fans took solace in watching the generation's biggest, nastiest pitcher finally have his day of reckoning. The sordid details about the Giants of recent vintage and Oakland's Bash Brothers were just that - details. The big stuff, we already knew. The information on Miguel Tejada was a sad, but not shocking, revelation. The effects of the report remain to be determined, but if a shake-up comes to the Giants' front office, it won't be all that lamented among the fans.

Although the signing of Aaron Rowand generated some optimism about the club, the Tigers' trade for Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera was a reminder of the Giants' shortcomings - too much money invested in a left-handed pitcher who doesn't throw as hard as Willis and too few young prospects to offer up as bait.

In the end, Haren's departure was the most demoralizing news of the week, a white flag flapping over the Coliseum. It's possible that Beane exchanged him for a new generation of stars-to-be-traded-later. But lately, every bit of talent on the team that has remained in Oakland has migrated to the disabled list. There are few things more distressing than contemplating the breakdowns of Rich Harden and Bobby Crosby, unless you remember Rice clutching his knee in that end zone 10 years ago.